Press Release, May 27, 2013

The visit of YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin to the Krasnoyarsk region began with a scandal. The regional state television channel Yenisei unilaterally terminated its contract with the YABLOKO party on provision of air time by the channel.

In the morning of May 27, Sergei Mitrokhin and Oksana Demchenko, Chair of the regional branch of YABLOKO party, went to the regional television company Yenisei for shooting of a television programme. However, Sergey Shakur, General Director of the channel, refused to provide air time, referring to a telephone call from the Administration of the Krasnoyarsk region. In a conversation with Oksana Demchenko the channel director told that he had received an order from the regional Administration not to cover the visit of Sergei Mitrokhin and environmentalist Acad. Alexei Yablokov to Krasnoyarsk.

A day before the Council of the Citizens’ Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory refused to conduct a round table on the construction of a radioactive waste repository in Zheleznogorsk, where Sergei Mitrokhin and Alexei Yablokov had to participate.

“I believe that censorship at the state television channel Yenisei harms many residents of the region, rather than the YABLOKO party, as the residents are deprived of a possibility to get true information about the situation with radioactive safety and other problems of the region,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.

In view of such administrative bans YABLOKO has organised a round table in the conference hall of the Krasnoyarsk hotel. Famous environmentalists, leaders of the Green Russia faction of the party Acad. Alexei Yablokov and Alexander Nikitin will make reports on the radioactive safety in Russia and the Krasnoyarsk region. Public organisations of the city, journalists and environmentalists have been invited to participate in the discussion.